Microteaching II comments here?

Promising Practices Professional Conference

I recently attended Rhode Island College’s “Promising Practices” professional conference. This was my first time attending any type of conference like this. At this conference the main speaker was a man named Dr. Chris Emdin who recently wrote a book about education in the new hip-hop generation. His main argument was about changing the classroom to function in a way that is designed for the students’ culture to thrive. He explained that, in today’s world, teachers do not know how to connect with their students. They need to better understand the way they think and comprehend material. He then continued on to explain that, in order to better understand student culture, we have understand the hip-hop generation. In this argument he explains how not all students are being given a fair chance in school. Some take in information differently. He gave an example of the lead rapper of Wu Tang and how he has talked to him before. Before becoming a rapper, Wu Tang loved science. He found it interesting and aspired to become a scientist. The issue was that he didn’t know how to grasp the material, and he felt really uncomfortable with the way schools were teaching him. In other words, he felt that school was not geared for him. Even though he was thoroughly engaged with the subject, he felt he couldn’t learn about it correctly. The way school was set up (straight desks in  single filed rows with a teacher spewing information at the front of the class) did not allow him to pursue his dream. He eventually dropped out and became part of Wu Tang where he could express himself and address issues with the world in a form he was comfortable with—rap. This rapper is highly intelligent and always was as a child, yet his school was not formed in a way that could quite match his type of learning. There are students like this rapper all over the United States that are extremely intelligent and want to learn but can’t because they are restricted by their teachers’ inabilities to connect with young people and identify with their learning culture. 

Dr. Chris Emdin continued on about another example. He explained that in a science class a test might be about Newton’s laws. He then rapped a song about the Newton’s laws of motion and showed how some students use this type of tactic to learn information because today’s generation thrives off of music and hip-hop. While they have everything memorized about Newton’s laws, they still cannot pass the test. Why?—Because the way the test is formatted.Tests ask for short essays and other forms of assessment that does not fit with the culture of young people today. He compares this to giving a student who studied from a book and notes the same information and giving him a test by asking him to “spits some bars” and rap the information he knows. This student would probably not do very well because the format does not suit him. He would be caught like a deer in the headlights. Thus, students have a different learning culture that affects their performance. Thus, we need to change our assessment methods to better form youth culture. 

The speaker then presented the idea of the rap-circle (which is something very common in today’s young culture). He demonstrates how a rap-circle works and how its formation could benefit schooling. He talked about how a rap-circle first starts off with a few people. One starts to rap. As one raps, if another person is connecting with the rap, then this person will start to make a beat. Others may start to feel the rap as well and will join in with other beats to better the sound of the rap. Sometimes when someone is really into what the rapper is saying through is rap, this person might want to join in and add something to the rap. How do they do this? They take turns through a system of gestures. They might give a shrug with their shoulder to the current rapper to show that they have something to say, or they might just use a quick glance where their eyes meet. When someone is rapping something and they just created a good diss on someone else, everyone usually responds with loud “OH!”s that in and of itself show that what the rapper just said was “fire” or on-point. Dr. Chris Emdin used this common example of youth culture to show how it acts as a way in which all are involved and engaged. A rap-circle acts as a perfect environment to encourage learning and development. He explained that a classroom does not have to be formed in straight lines with a teacher droning on about information. Instead it can be more relaxed and comforting like a rap-circle. 

I agreed with his issues with classrooms today. Most teachers teach a classroom the way they were taught years ago. They teach how they observed other teachers teach. This, however, is a bad practice. Schools and teachers should always be looking for the next best thing. They have to keep updated with their students and create an environment that reaches out to all students. We should not be re-creating classroom structures that were popular in the 30’s, but we still do. Classrooms are still formed and functioning in the same way as they were when our parents and grandparents went to school. There needs to be growth in the classroom in order to engage students and to let their learning abilities thrive. Teachers need to keep up with youth culture. If we don’t know our students and how they learn, then how can we teach them? Thus, after this conference, I am going to try to form my classroom in a way that encourages their learning culture rather than suppresses it. 

While I agreed with his issues with classrooms today, I found some issues in the way he presented this information. He was rather offensive and made many people uncomfortable. The way he spoke about his argument and the way he talked about students implied to the audience that he was only talking about black students. While he outwardly addresses that he is talking about all students, he really narrows down his argument to be aimed towards solving issues for black students. Thus, the conference became more about black plight rather than student plight. I was offended by many of the things he said, and I know many of my peers were too. There is a way to talk about the hip-hop nation and student culture without having to talk about specifically black students. 

Overall, the conference was very interesting, and I took a lot away from it. 

Observational Story

 

It was a cold day. The kind where the sun peaks from between the empty, silent streets of small, decrepit houses while the harsh wind cuts right through your being  like a razor blade through a damp tissue as you walk down the grey sidewalk. The kind where your feet tingle with every step, and your fingers achingly ping with every pulse of blood. The kind where your ruby face feels like it has been bitten, and your ears feel like they have been burned with a white-hot iron. 

With twenty minutes to spare I had arrived. There was no parking lot in sight and the streets were aligned with cars upon cars, desperately squeezed close together compactly so as to be as close to the building as possible. After searching for a parking spot for fifteen minutes I eventually deciding to take the risk and park in a permit only zone for the forty-five minutes I would be there.
With now only five minutes until class started, my body shook uncontrollably as I quickly paced around the large building towards the main entrance which sat at the top of a flight of stairs with no ramp for handicap students. 

After signing in and meeting with a professional, I was brought down a grey,white, and baby-blue colored corridor. Students of all different races, genders, ethnicities, class, and body shapes scattered like a stampede to hurriedly get to their classes on time. The dull hallways seemed like a maze, all of the same pattern and confusingly darting off into different directions.

I introduced myself to a blonde teacher dressed professionally in a black and white colored suit with black-rimmed glasses that sat at the top of her nose against her pale face. Her smile was friendly and warm. Though she had the exterior of a hardened professional woman, she was anything but. She had the soft spoken, encouraging, and light-hearted demeanor of a kind mother. 

I took a seat in the far back right corner of the room. It was a small and claustrophobic. Behind me sat a large, iron curtain that separated one half of the room to another where a teacher could be heard boisterously navigating his classroom.  

The desks were aligned in compact rows of five or six with little to no room to walk down the aisles.  Pencil drawings of cartoons were practically carved into the white wood of the desk I sat at. 

Though the room was small, it was colorful and lively. The walls were cluttered with a rainbow of colorful encouragements, agendas, rules, reminders, artwork, vocabulary, calendars, and expectations. An American flag hung from my left. Dozens of files sat against the large window to my right filled with student classwork and assignments. A medium-sized divided white board sat at the front of the room with homework assignments and objectives written. Notes for the day were already scribed in a thick, black marker in a large and bold font. The teacher’s desk sat on an angle in the right hand corner of the front of the class perfectly organized with all sorts of folders, binders, and piles of neatly-laid assignments. A black digital clock sat on the wall above the door. Dingy off-white filing cabinets sat in the back of the room, to my left.

Despite a stack of the same large textbooks lined against the wall and a few dictionaries, there was a lack of books. Where I had expected every English classroom to be healthily riddled with dozens and dozens of books, there were hardly any that I could see.

Students began to file into the classroom, dropping their books onto their desks with a loud bang and turning around to talk with their friends. After the bell had let out a muted chime, the students took their seats, but continued to talk. The teacher waited a few minutes after the bell as a few students scurried into the classroom. Then I counted.

There were fourteen students. Ten were female and four were male. Three were white, five were black, and six were either mulatto or hispanic. It was hard for me to identify. Four students wore glasses while ten did not. None seemed to really be overweight nor underweight. Some were dressed nicer than others. I could not tell if this was a stylistic choice or one directly related to their economic classes. I assumed it was more economic. Overall the class was extremely diverse with many different kinds of smiling faces, ready for class to begin. There was still a buzz of student conversations before the teacher stood in front of the class and announced the beginning task.

As the teacher continued with class, she asked many questions. Almost all students were involved and engaged in the lesson. There might have been one or two students who did not talk that sat in the back of the classroom. They sat quietly, but never took their eyes off of the teacher or the text in front of them. It was obvious that they were paying attention and were following the material, but I wasn’t sure if they quite understood everything being taught because they never voiced their answers or opinions to the class. The student, along with all of the other students, have the ability to participate. They all have the correct materials, take notes, and do not have any disabilities that would make them unable to participate.

I was mostly impressed with the students and their reactions to the lesson plan. They were not completely ecstatic about the lesson of course, but they treated it as if they really wanted to understand and learn. This brought a smile to my face. The students were arguing their opinions, striking up conversations about what they would do in situations that characters were in, making content-related jokes, and were having fun with the content. The teacher allowed students to have these conversations, which I was actually happy about. The teacher allowed the students to talk about the content because it meant they were engaged. She did not, however, allow this conversation to get off-topic or out of hand. She held the power to control the room and how the students acted.

Though some students got out of their seat, they were quiet and quick so as not to disrupt their classmates from learning. Overall, it was a rather pleasant experience despite the extremely small space the students and teacher were provided with in such a confusingly laid-out and dingily colored school with extremely narrow, maze-like hallways.

After the bell rang, I returned to the main office where I handed back my visitor badge in return of my student ID card. Although the school might not have looked the best, it at least was pretty secure.
On my way out the door I pictured what it might be like to be a student at the school. I think it would be hard to be inspired within such a confusing and pale school. While this is true, I might be encouraged and inspired depending on my teacher and the environment the teacher set up for me. The teacher I observed was one that encourages learning and having a clean and inspiring environment.

It might be hard to get to class on time when there is hardly anywhere to park. Heck, it was hard for me to even find a parking spot with the twenty minutes I had to spare. I couldn’t imagine how many students might show up to school with only five minutes and end up being late due to the lack of parking.

As I walked around the building I saw three people who looked like students slamming on a side door for their peers to let them in. They stared at me as I walked down the sidewalk with glaring eyes, making me feel slightly uncomfortable. After a while, they looked away and continued to bang on the door. A teacher told them through the window of the door to go through the front of the school and sign in. At least I could rest easy knowing that the school took necessary safety precautions.

And even though my fingers felt like they were about to detach from my hand and fall off onto the concrete, and my nose was nearly purple from the cold wind blasting against my face, I was happy to have been able to observe a classroom in action. 

Observation Lesson Plan

This is a lesson plan I wrote in response to a lesson I observed at Central Falls High School. This information was not given to me, so I had to guess as to what her lesson plan would have looked like. 

Observation Lesson Plan: PART I (Planning)

Teacher: Illene Lambert

Subject: English Honors AP

Grade: 11

Name of Lesson: Introduction to Characteristics of Romantic Literature
Objectives:

1.) "Students will infer meaning through context clues" (she wrote this one on the board)
2.) Students will identify characteristics of romantic literature by reading Washington Irving's "The Devil and Tom Walker" with the class and pointing out and responding to the romantic techniques and characteristics the author uses. 

Students Standards:
#2.) Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience. 
#3.) Students apply a wide range of strategies roc comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics). 

Teacher Standards:
#2.) Teachers have a deep content knowledge base sufficient to create learning experiences that reflect and understanding of central concepts, vocabulary, structures, and tools of inquiry of the disciplines/content areas they teach. 
#5.) Teacher creates instructional opportunities to encourage allstudents' development of critical thinking, problem solving, performance skills, and literacy across content areas. 
#6.) Teacher creates a supportive learning environment that encourages appropriate standards of behavior, positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation. 
#8.) Teacher uses appropriate formal and informal assessment strategies with individuals and groups of students to determine the impact of instruction on learning, to provide feedback, and to plan further instruction. 
#11.) Teachers maintain professional standards guided by legal and ethical principles. 

Rationale:
This lesson introduces students to the characteristics of romantic literature. It is important for students to learn about and read different texts from different time periods to allow the students to create and understanding of the history of literature. It is also important that students learn how to infer the meaning of words and of literary works through context clues. This is how students begin to learnt how to analyze literature and extract meaning. It forces the student to think: "Why was this written?" and "What is the point of this work?" Theses are important skills to have for the future in order to be a functional member of society. This lesson fits the curriculum and helps achieve the common core standards, and it is located in the introduction. 

Materials:
Pre-made visual aid from previous class that lists the characteristics of the Age of Reason as a review, a white board, expo markers, eraser, a book with Washington Irving's literary work in it, dictionaries, and student self-selected reading books. 

Accommodations:
The print on the visual aid and on the board is written very large so that students with vision impairments can see them. 

What content resources support this knowledge base?
-The teacher's personal knowledge
-Washington Irving's Story
-Notes in the textbook

How confident are you as you start this lesson?
Very confident. 

Lesson Plan Observation Part II (Action)
Bell-ringer (how will you get students seated, and ready for academic work?):
Stand quietly in the front of the class and have the assignment behind me on the board so that they know to grab a dictionary automatically and sit down at their desks. 

Anticipatory Set: I will ask students if there were any words in their self-selected reading books that they did not know. I will then tell them that if they cannot find words they don't know, then they are probably reading a book that is at too low of a reading level for them. If they don't know words, I will tell them to figure them out. 

Step 1(8:55-9:00): Tell students to find at least two words they have never heard of before in their self-selected reading books and to make a chart of the word in their dialectic journals. Tell them to write the page number and date, the phrase it is located in, to circle the word in the phrase, guess what is means, and then look up the actual definition and write it underneath. 

Step 2 (9:00-9:13): Students work on this assignment individually and silently. 

Step 3 (9:13-9:16): Ask "Who didn't get a word?" Provide an example from Washington Irving's book with the word "termagant". Ask them to use that word and figure it out. Have class discuss the meaning of this word. What does it sound like? How does the rest of the sentence give them clues to the meaning? Does it have a good or bad connotation? 

Step 4 (9:16-9:17): Inform class that looking up words while reading their self-selected reading books is very important and that it helps them broaden their vocabulary. Tell the students that they are allowed to use their cell phones in class to look up words in their book. If they do this, however, they must inform the teacher. 

Step 5 (9:17-9:28): Review characteristics and beliefs that defined The Age of Reason and how they focused on logic, intelligence, law, politics, rights, success, etc. Use Benjamin Franklin as an example. Use the visual aid here. Then write on the board key notes as I talk about how people got tired of this logic-driven world and how Romanticism was on the rise. Short lecture about the newcharacteristics of Romanticism and how people of this era were focused on nature as inspiration, individualism, supernatural forces (ghosts, poltergeists, devil, God, etc.), emotion, imagination, etc. Talk about how The Age of Reason was an era set in the intelligent brain, while Romanticism was an era set in the emotional, feeling heart. 

Step 6 (9:28-9:29): Tell the students to turn to page 320 in the textbook to the literary work entitled “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving. 

Step 7 (9:29-9:31): Ask a student to volunteer to read the note at the top of the work provided by the authors of the textbook about the background of this particular literary work. Student reads. 

Step 8 (9:30-9:32): Ask students to discuss the background of this work and how it may affect its content. Ask, “What do we infer about this work already?” and “What do we call people who do not spend their money and selfishly only want to acquire more?” Most importantly, ask “What made people so mad about this story that made Washington Irving quit writing fiction altogether?”

Step 9 (9:32-9:46): Read the work out loud to the class. While doing this pause to ask quick questions to see if students are paying attention. Pause also: point out characteristics of Romanticism and ask students to respond, to point out how the author automatically tries to appeal to our own greed by reading it, to identify vocabulary words and discuss their meaning, to ask critical thinking questions like “Why didn’t they give the horse hay?” (to try and see if they understand the economic situation these people are in) or “Would the normal people  of this town go here?”, to inquire personality traits of characters, to ask “What happened in the Garden of Eden?” to force the students to compare the imagery of the snake in this work to the serpent in the Biblical story, to compare imagery to Hamlet, to compare the plot to a story previously read in class, and and to relate to the students to the book and to have them assess the main character by asking “If you saw a skull would you kick it?” 

Step 10 (9:46-9:47): Stop reading wherever you are and review the aspects of this work that were characteristic of the Romantic era. 

Closing(9:48-9:50): Tell students there is no homework for tonight, but remind them about the upcoming assignment due in a few days. Tell the students to put the dictionaries back on their way out of class. 

Homework: NA

Review and Reflection: Create a visual aid for next class that points out the key characteristics of the Romantic era. Have them compare the different characteristics of Romanticism and The Age of Reason to really emphasize how these eras were. 

Extension: Give students more literary works to read at home and ask them to make a list of characteristics of Romanticism they found in these books. 

Closing: Create a visual aid with the characteristics of the Romantic era. 

Lesson Plan Part III (Reflection)

1.) What went well?
Students were very engaged and answered all of the questions asked. They were able to figure out what “termagant” meant using contextual clues. 

2.) What area of weakness needs addressing?
Some students were unable to find words they didn’t recognize in their self-selected books. Thus, students should be encouraged to read more books that are on their reading level. 

3.) Which objectives were met? 
All objectives were met. Students not only were able to identify what their vocabulary words meant based on context clues, but they also responded well to and identified the characteristics of Romantic writing in Irving’s literary work. 

4.) Which students did not meet objectives?
All the students met the objectives. 

5.) Was time managed appropriately?
For the most part. Class ended early and the students were sitting on their desks with their books in their arms waiting for the bell to ring. They were only doing that for about 3 minutes though. There might have been too much time dedicated to identifying vocabulary words in their self-selected reading books. 

6.) Did any teacher mannerisms or actions detract from the lesson?
No. If anything, the only thing would be that the teacher stumbled over some words when reading out loud to the class. 

7.) What were the strengths and weaknesses of classroom management? 
I thought there were quit a few strengths and weaknesses. 
Strengths: Objectives were met, students were busy for most of the class, students were very engaged and answered questions, the questions asked were very inquisitive and made the students think, and questions ranged on many different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (some high and some low). 
Weaknesses: At this grade level, as an AP honors course, the work was too simple. The teacher read out loud to the class instead of allowing students to either read silently or take turns reading out loud. Students were asked about vocabulary words below their grade level like “greedy” and “miser”. Students are still working on self-selected reading books which I last saw included in curriculum in grade 8. Students were also working on vocabulary and, at this grade level, they should already have the skills to identify words they don’t know and figure them out through context clues. Too much time was dedicated to their dialectic journals. The class ended early and the students got very loud and boisterous. Students from other classes kept on walking into the class and talking to other students. Other students kept leaving class or getting up while the teacher was talking. 

8.) Was the lesson engaging? 
Yes. Very.

9.) What did I learn from my peer observation? 
I learned that I can do this. As I watched the teacher navigate the classroom and recorded all the questions she asked and all of the steps she took, I thought “I could do that”. This is not to say that the teacher did something so easy that anyone could do it. It takes a lot of planning and skill to prepare for and orchestrate an entire class. What I am saying is that I could see myself doing this lesson plan, and I know I would be confident in doing it. 
I also learned new strategies in teaching characteristics of writing from different eras to a text. I thought of great questions to ask and how to relate the work to curriculum. 

10.) How will this experience influence your professional identity?
This not only showed me that I can observe classrooms all the time to get great ideas if I plan in advance, but it also introduced me to a new school, a new principle, and other teachers. Students looked up to me and thought that I was a teacher, and this gave me confidence in that I will have the ability to command a classroom. This observation also helped me see the real timing of a full-length class and how a teacher navigates through it. Thus, it will help me have a better idea of what to expect. 

What Makes a Good Teacher?

Taylor Crosby

What Makes a Good Teacher

            It is a question that all concerned with education struggle with: “What makes a good teacher?” Though there are varying answers to this controversial question depending upon the opinion and perspective of the one answering, it seems that there are four qualities that are absolutely necessary in the development of successful teaching. Above all, a teacher should be organized/prepared, creative, aware, and passionate.

            When reviewing a good teacher, probably the most important and necessary quality is to have organizational and preparatory skills.  Organization skills are a key part of becoming a good teacher. This includes organization of units, lesson plans, homework assignments, assessment systems, scheduling, degrees of punishment, and so on. Planning is at the base of all classrooms. A well-planned classroom makes way for a successful classroom. A teacher who is not well-organized takes time away from both class and personal time trying to improvise or quickly create a successful lesson. In the long run, improvising eventually leads to a colossal, disorganized mess in which achievement is almost impossible  However, by keeping oneself organized, the teacher creates an open and goal-oriented environment within which learning is not distracted or taken away from. Being organized is a part of being prepared. Within the context of a teacher, being prepared helps avoid possible problems in the future. Anything can happen at any given moment. Controversy is a teacher’s worst enemy. It lurks around every corner and presents itself in the most unexpected ways at the most unexpected of times, threatening jobs. A teacher should be prepared for any controversy that may arise from any lesson, book, etc. A prepared teacher is a teacher ready to take on any task with a well-organized and understanding nature. Teachers should also be prepared for unruly, rowdy, or distracting students and how to appropriately handle them in order to help guide them to inspiration and success.  Without both of these important skills, not only is a teacher going to have a very difficult time doing his or her extremely important job, but he or she would also be wasting valuable development for each student in a tornado of confusion.

            While the previous qualities are important, creativity is also a necessary quality to obtain. A teach is only as good as the success of his students, and how can one’s student be successful if one cannot even engage the students to participate in the first place? The answer is: they can’t. Students are very easily bored. They don’t want to be sitting in class listening to their teacher ramble about measuring the meniscus correctly or how to convert decimals into percentages all day. To them, there are much better things they could be spending their time doing. School is the last thing on their minds. Thus, teachers need to dig deep into their inner youngsters and start getting creative—songs, plays, projects, movies, games, discussions!—there are so many different ways that teachers can introduce and teach topics or curriculum, and the more creative they are, the more likely they are to engage the students’ interests. All students learn differently and, due to these different learning styles, teachers need to find new ways to connect to each and every student in order to help them to success.

            While creativity is important, teachers also need to understand that while being creative, they also need to watch out from straying too far from the subject matter. Lessons need to be both informative and fun. If the lesson allows for too much fun then the students will become distracted. One also must make sure that the creative lesson is not inappropriate or can lead to controversy. If a lesson might appear to be a little risqué, then permission slips should be sent to each student’s parents to notify them of the upcoming lesson plans. Creativity needs to be seconded to appropriate learning. Thus, creativity must be accompanied by a third, very important quality: awareness.

            Awareness refers to many thing in terms of good teaching. In regards to creativity, teachers need to be aware of youth culture. In other words, they need to be aware of what is modern. Creativity, in exchange of class participation and engagement, is great, but, if students are unfamiliar with certain outdated teaching tools, they, in turn, will become bored and, thus, the teacher will be stuck at square one again.  For example, a teacher might want to give the students a visual representation of their lesson on volcanoes. While the teacher might think a documentary from the 60’s might be a highly educational and fun way to engage the students, they might not think so. Not only is the film outdated, but it was also not made to appeal to a younger audience. Most outdated documentaries feature voice-overs of monotonous males stating facts as the camera slowly pans over stagnant shots of the subject matter. The film, if anything at this point, just serves as nap time for the students. They lay their heads down in their arms crossed on top of their desk and snooze. But say that the students watched a YouTube video made by  some comedic scientists on their science YouTube channel about volcanoes (there are many) which proves to be both hilariously entertaining while, at the same time, expelling facts and demonstrating the mechanics of a volcano and why they erupt. They might be more likely to pay attention. There are all sorts of scientific related shows on television that may serve as better visuals than some outdated documentaries (Mythbusters, Bill Nye, Mad Science, etc.) Thus, if a teacher is aware of the times and modern youth culture, then that are more likely to be able to relate to and engage the students.

Awareness is more than just an awareness of the times. Awareness entails awareness of students and student behavior. Which students are and are not comprehending the material? How can this be helped? Which students seem isolated from the rest of the class? Which students are being bullied? Which student are having a hard time working in groups? Which students roll their eyes or yawn when you are giving a lesson? Which ones have learning disabilities? Which ones receive free lunch? Why might they receive free lunch? All students come from different backgrounds and these differences in backgrounds influence who they are as students and how they think. Teachers need to be aware of these specifics and factor them into their teaching tactics and plans in order to ensure equal opportunity and attention to all students.

Awareness here also refers to the awareness of the expectations and goals of parents, the school, the community, the nation, and, most importantly, the self.  A teacher needs to be aware of all of these differences of view and bring them to a happy medium, while still keeping/ sticking to their own teaching beliefs. This is very important. The teacher is the one who has been trained to teach students. While the teacher needs to be understanding of all opinions and needs to take them into consideration, the teacher also must not stray from their teaching beliefs or methods.

Finally, the last quality that makes a good teacher is passion. Passion is extremely important for any teacher to have. If a teacher does not have a passion for their subject matter, a passion for children, a passion for learning, a passion for teaching, or a passion for knowledge, then what is the point? Inspiration feeds off of passion when it is ever-present. If a teacher feels passion for his or her job then this passion will radiate outward in every lesson, every activity, every spoken word, and will eventually reach students. One must think of it as such: If the teacher doesn't want to be there then why would the students? Passion is what keeps a class moving forward and progressing. A passionate teacher encourages learning and never gives up on a student. They are determined to make a student succeed, because their passion for learning, teaching, and knowledge allow them to push forward and inspire others. Passion is the fire that keeps a teacher going. Without passion, there is little hope for those being taught.

Overall, a teacher needs to have organizational and preparatory skills to act as a glue to hold the class together, creativity to grab the attention of the students and reach all types of students, awareness to pinpoint issues and avoid them, and passion to keep the class’s energy up and to encourage them to stay determined in becoming successful students.